John Della Bosca

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John Joseph Della Bosca is an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Della Bosca is currently a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Formerly the Minister for Commerce, Minister for Finance, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability Services and Vice President of the Executive Council. He serves as Leader of the Government in the upper house.

His most recent portfolios were Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for the Central Coast. On 13 June 2008 he stood aside from these positions pending an investigation into an incident at a Central Coast restaurant.

1 Early career
2 Parliamentary career
3 Controversies
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Early career

Della Bosca joined the ALP in January 1973. He rose through his branch and electorate council to take a place on the party's National Executive.

Between 1976 and his election to parliament in 1999, Della Bosca worked for the labour movement full-time in various capacities, first as a researcher for Senator Kerry Sibraa. In 1979 he took on the role of National Research Officer for the Australian Transport Officers' Federation, becoming the union's State Organiser in 1981.

In 1983, Della Bosca became State Organiser for the ALP. In 1985, he was promoted to Assistant Secretary and in 1990 he attained the position of General Secretary, a post he was to hold for nine years.

[edit] Parliamentary career

In 1999, Della Bosca made his much-anticipated move into parliamentary politics as a candidate for the Legislative Council. Within a month of his election, then Premier Bob Carr appointed him Special Minister of State, in effect the government's "Mr Fix-it".

As Special Minister of State, Della Bosca led reforms to compulsory third party ("green slip") insurance after public outcry over soaring costs. Della Bosca also braved controversy to streamline the system of workers compensation—drawing the ire of the trade union movement.

In 2000, Della Bosca famously became the first senior ALP figure to support the Goods and Services Tax (GST) since the mid-1980s, telling The Bulletin magazine that then federal leader Kim Beazley was wrong to oppose the measure. Della Bosca's approach made him a pariah within a party then running hard on the GST issue: his stance is thought to have derailed his bid for the party's federal presidency. Labor has since fallen in line with Della Bosca and dropped its opposition to the tax: the GST had become a non-issue by the time of the 2004 election.

On September 4, 2007 Della Bosca stated 'the NSW government drives to keep (TAFE) fees as low as possible.' Yet he announced that fees would be increasing by 6.5% to 9% in relation to course fees.^[1]

[edit] Controversies

In May, 2008, Della Bosca revealed his probationary drivers licence had been revoked for a period of six months, after he was caught multiple times for speeding offences.^[2] The incident caused controversy, because at the time of the ban, Della Bosca was in charge of the Motor Accidents Authority.^[3] Later that month, he caused further controversy by calling a photographer a 'fucking cunt' after being photographed cycling to work. ^[4]

On June 13, 2008 Della Bosca was stood down from his position as Minister for Education and Training while police investigated an alleged altercation between Della Bosca and his wife, and the staff at Iguanas Waterfront Bar.^[5] The nightclub issued an apology to Della Bosca, at least parts of which were reported to have been written by Della Bosca himself.^[6]